From the Richmond Dispatch, 6/21/1862, p. 3, c. 1

THE
HOSPITALS.

We are gratified to notice that the hospitals
in different parts of the city are being rapidly vacated by their
late occupants, many of them now containing not more than one-fourth
the original number of patients. While death has done its work on a
few, a great majority have been taken to their homes by friends, or
have been sent to the country and to the health inspiring mountain
regions of Virginia. But few now remain, except those long and
tedious cases of fractures of some of the larger bones, or those
upon whom amputation has been performed. The ladies are still
assiduous in their attentions, and, it may be superfluous to add,
their labors have been productive of a vast amount of good. We are
told that in the battle of Shiloh, where the wounded had little
attention beyond that given by the surgeons, and where the only
nurses were soldiers detailed from the different regiments,
four-fifths of those upon whom capital operations were performed,
afterwards died. In this case we venture to say not above one-fifth
died after operations. This is not owing to superior medical or
surgical skill, but to the careful attention the men have received —
to the patient, conconstant and tender
nursing of the ladies of Richmond. We have no data upon which to
base a statement as to percentage of deaths resulting from serious
wounds, but believe it to be very small; much less, indeed, than
could have been expected in the ordinary course of events. The
weather has been favorable for rapid recoveries, and we are
gratified to notice how soon many have been able to leave their
pallets in the hospitals and go out into the pleasant summer air.
Every train that leaves the city now has numbers of convalescents
upon it.